Tories Can't Return to Eighties Dogma ; Pledges to Freeze Pay and Modernise the Public Sector Play Well at Conference but Will Unleash a Union Backlash [Edition 2]

Summary

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SUDDENLY, it's starting to feel like old times. Royal Mail workers have voted to strike; British Airways cabin crew may follow. In Leeds, rubbish bags pile up as bin men protest against council cutbacks. Engineering, steel and construction employees have also been discussing industrial action. Meanwhile, the probable next chancellor promises a pay freeze for public-sector workers earning over Pounds 18,000 a year.

There's a distinct whiff of how we were, of unions squaring up to employers, and strong-jawed politicians pledging to remain resolute and firm. The spectre of a new season of discontent looms. It may give short-term pleasure to the Tory faithful, being seen to inflict public-sector pain. However, it's really the nation's and the economy's long-term cohesiveness which is at risk if the Tories attempt to be too tough in government; and politically, they will suffer from that.

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Tories Can't Return to Eighties Dogma ; Pledges to Freeze Pay and Modernise the Public Sector Play Well at Conference but Will Unleash a Union Backlash [Edition 2]

As Adam Crozier at the Royal Mail, Willie Walsh at BA and other hard-talking, modernising bosses have already found: saying something and putting it into practice isn't always easy. In all probability, David Cameron and George Osborne are going to make the same discovery.

Apocalyptic warnings coupled with curbing wa...

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